Making Friends: Childhood, the Cultural Economy and Creative Collaboration Through Technology

“Making Friends” sought to explore historically informed research questions about childhood friendships and technology through hands-on electronics-based creative activities. This chapter explains how we worked with children and teachers from Stoke Newington School along with educators, policy makers, researchers and cultural industries professionals, including museum and gallery staff. The people involved came from different fields including education, outreach, curation and digital programming. The chapter reflects on the structural elements that enabled our successful collaboration and the benefits we gained from working together. It highlights the variety of collaborative activities which comprised the larger project and outlines our future plans.